


From the Journals of Sunshine Stonecask

by Kest_Hammergarden



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Boatmurdered, Gen, Rated T for instances of fantasy violence, Sunshine doesn't lie exactly, Sunshine is a completely normal Dwarf, The Boatmurdered clan of Dwarves started as an injoke and has spiraled into its own thing, and also places where I didn't write around the off color humor, and to get it in propper chronological order, for a Teifling at least, imported over from my main blog for ease of sharing, mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:40:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 28
Words: 13,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26999056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kest_Hammergarden/pseuds/Kest_Hammergarden
Summary: Away from the Mountain Home, in the midst of goblin hords and wide wilderness, the Boatmurdered clan was been given permission to build a new fortress. To once again strike the earth after the tragic failure of their last attempt generations back. The events detailed here, taken from the journals of the fortress' lead cartographer and senior member of the security team Sunshine Stonecask, cover the first year of the fortress' operation and the failed demonic incursion that took place in that time.This is a story of the Caskfire Expedition.
Kudos: 1





	1. The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> The entirety of this story has been up on my blog for ages, but I'm not sure if I ever did any writing comments there. This started out a bit mad with all of our characters having been come up with as adventurers hired by the Caskfire Expedition to run security, Sunshine aside given that she is part of the expedition as part of the family building the fortress, but it meant that there was no real cohesion built in to the party. Everyone more or less met on the way there, leaving some interesting character bits to be built around. At this point we had not decided that Sunshine and Chonck were cousins so, while it can be hand waved a little, there's a little early installment weirdness here.

1st of Spring, Year 256

Right.

Right, right, right, right!

The new batch of adventurers should be arriving today with the new caravan. I know they’re going to have job jobs, but it’ll help having other around to keep things safe for the civilians living here.

Caskfire’s coming along alright, basic, but alright. It’ll be nice for it to start growing more, especially if that means we can start getting personal quarters. Or at least some work space that doesn’t double as a table at the inn. Soon enough on that I guess. Maybe with better security we could attract some artisans. That’d be nice.

Churt doesn’t seem too happy about this lot, but Churt never seems happy about anything. Well, money aside. It does leave me hoping that I’ll at least get along with them. Wouldn’t that be terrible? Fighting off the Goblin hordes with companions I couldn’t stand? As long as they keep the fortress safe though, I’ll need to work with them.

That’s right! I heard that one of them is supposed to be a librarian and that they’re bringing some books with them. A library could be really nice, there isn’t a lot to do here aside from working and drinking as of yet. We would still need to set it up in the inn, but still, there should be space. And one of the other new comers is supposed to be a bard, so that should be something else to make Caskfire feel more like home.

More later though, I’ve got to finish getting ready. They’ll be here soon!

1st of Spring, Year 256

Things could have gone worse?

I don’t know that this is going to work. The warlock and the bard seem fine, personable, willing to communicate, willing to wait on the rest of the group. That’s great, I can’t wait to work with them. I can’t wait to try more of Eclair’s baking.

The half-elf though. She doesn’t seem like she’s going to be willing to work with the rest of the party. Charged right past where I was having the adventurers group up to be filled in on things before meeting with Churt for the first time, didn’t even stop for hello, and when we got to the inn she had her feet on the table. On the table! People eat there! But no, no, never mind that, put your gross boots right where the plates go.

Also our new librarian, Chonck, seems nice enough. But he’s also near completely illiterate and won’t be separated from the books he brought with him. The books he brought with him in a massive sack. At least he stopped trying to take any other books he saw after being warned about Churt’s ledger. Maybe we can teach him to read once things have settled a bit?

We’re going to go scouting the area around the Yoyabo Goblin pit tomorrow. Wish us luck.

We’re going to need it I think.

2nd Spring, Year 256

Things went better than expected. I saw some of what the new team is capable of when we ran into a small Goblin patrol. I got around to the far side of them and took two out before they could close on the party. Not my smartest plan given that it got me stabbed, but it gave me a good vantage on what the others did.

It looks like the half-elf and the warlock both have some kind of attack spell, though since they both missed I’ve got no idea what they do. The bard though, Azurei might scare me a little, since she pulped the Goblins I didn’t get all at once, weapons and all.

It also seems that she and the half-elf have healing abilities. Not unexpected, but good to confirm and useful to keep around.

And our warlock, Eclair, seems to need to sacrifice organs from defeated enemies to her patron in addition to baked goods. Definitely worth keeping in mind. What kind of being is her patron that it would have such requirements? She doesn’t seem willing to talk about it.

I’ll worry about that later. On a more immediate note, we found a Goblin encampment. It looked like there was forty of them, maybe as many as fifty, maybe more. It’s close enough to be a serious concern. So we’ll need to pull from the fortress’ militia. Probably need to run some drills with them to make sure the adventurers know how to work with and around them.

Probably won’t have the chance to update until this is taken care of. Going to need to keep an eye on that encampment and the militia drills. Hope the half-elf doesn’t take a wagon out and draw every Goblin in the woods to our front door.


	2. The Discovery of Mr. "E"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the aftermath of dealing with a goblin encampment a threat to Caskfire is discovered. Sunshine has complaints about one of her new co-workers.

8th of Spring, Year 256

Okay, right. So, a week of drilling with the militia dwarves and scouting around to keep an eye on that encampment and things went about as expected. About as expected with the unexpected absence of Eclair, her patron required her and there was nothing to be done about it.

We collected our allotment of militia dwarves and were able to head directly towards the Goblins. Neither Chonck, nor the elf, nor the militia are any good at being quiet so it had to be fairly head on.

The good news is, there isn’t a Goblin encampment any more. A few got away, but that’s a few. Bad news is, we made an absolute mess of the place and probably seem absolutely barbarous now. Chonck remains good at charging into things but not so much at stopping or turning around. Between his attempts to help and Azurei’s spells, there weren’t many bodies left in recognizable condition.

If we could get the Yoyabo Goblins grouped tight enough then Azurei might be able to take the lot of them out herself. She’s probably the most reliable magic user we have just now. Given that Eclair can be called away at any time and that the half-elf’s magic seems rather hit or miss. I don’t know that I want to take my chances there.

I find myself concerned about our ability to work as a team in the long term. Chonck and Azurei are both willing to work together. Eclair seems willing, but we haven’t seen much of her in the field. The elf though, the sarcastic rude half-elf, she’s going to be trouble. How hard is it to look for anything of use when it’s suggested? But no, the elf couldn’t do that and instead chose to gesture about at the destruction and mouth off. Never mind that we found what was left of another five Goblins and their provision stores in what was left of the encampment’s hut. Or that Azurei found orders papers. No, clearly there was nothing to search.

After that, I set the elf to searching each of the remaining Goblins. If she’s going to refuse to help and treat me like I’m being unreasonable, then why not set her to doing grunt work? Because she made a mess of that too. Apparently “search” in common is “walk around stabbing corpses in the backside” in elf.

Right. Anyway, the papers that Azurei found, someone calling them self “E” ordered the encampments placement to send Caskfire a message.

Knowing that some one is trying to send Caskfire a message, is threatening the fortress, I feel less bad about leaving the encampment as destroyed as we did. Mixing the Goblin pulp into their remaining rations might have been going too far. But if it scares them enough to stay away that’s worth it. If that doesn’t work then we also have a number of Goblins staked up on javelins thanks to Chonck and the suggestion of one of the militia dwarves.

Send a message in response to a message.

We’re going to plant them out behind the fortress. Churt was worried about the corpses worrying the human ambassador who should be arriving soon if we put them out front. I can’t see Churt being happy about having to deal with humans, but that’s part of leading the expedition. If nothing else, cousin Throckmorton is used to dealing with human traders for the inn. He’s definitely going to help her with them, so things should go smoothly.

That said, with the humans here things will likely be quiet for the next while. At least unless our Mr. “E” sends Goblins after us directly. More later either way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine's dislike of Wren started early and lasted for nearly the whole campaign. It was more than a little funny trying to balance what was actually going on in game with Sunshine's complaints about Wren. Eventually it just became funnier to let some of the proper plot summary fall into the background for the sake of in character priorities.
> 
> This session was also a really good example of how five days can pass in ten minutes while a ten minute battle takes five hours in D&D. There were also a number of breaks for table talk joking and just in general poking fun at each other's characters. Chonck quickly became a source of a ton of laugh breaks


	3. Chonck the Librarian is not Greatly Familiar with Words, Sunshine's Life is Suffering

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine spoke without thinking and the consequences were both unexpected and exactly what she should have expected.

11th of Spring, Year 256

The human ambassador brought some goods to trade. Not much. Some linens and things. A little bit of furniture. And more importantly, alcohol. We finally have something other than mushroom beer even if it will have to be carefully rationed.

To take care of that, we’re going to be headed to the ambassador’s home city of White Hall, the closest major city they have, to see about setting up more steady trade with them. We have some goods of our own to offer them. Mostly things that weren’t quite to Churt’s standards, but that’s hardly a mark against them. And, of course, mushroom beer and a selection of our most recent harvest of mushrooms. It’s likely to be unfamiliar, novel, enough that we can get a good price on it.

At least, we should be able to get a good price on it if we can avoid diplomatic incidents.

Chonck related diplomatic incidents mostly.

I should have waited until Eclair returned before we set out. Or made certain that I watched my words more carefully. Or even if I had considered that Chonck wasn’t likely to know any of the more colorful language some of my fellows have tended to use in the past.

I didn’t consider though, and Azurei took ill while we were en route to the village we were planning on staying in for the night, so she was in no shape to help. The elf, of course, did nothing but sit in the wagon and drink all out beer. Deeply helpful that. Never mind maybe helping the rest of the party. No, no, never mind that.

I digress. Chonck wanted to learn what his new word was. Before she had to leave to rest, Azurei offered to teach him once he was older. That did nothing to put him off it. Though a local farmer helpfully suggested that one of the village priests had confiscated such a book recently and perhaps Chonck could convince them to let him have it. I don’t question how the farmer overheard us, only why he saw fit to tell Chonck about this.

I keep coming back to the idea that things might still have been fine if any of us had thought to stop Chonck from going to the temple after we unharnessed him from the cart. Just, a suggestion that the priest had likely taken the book for a reason or and offer to find him a different book on the subject. Something to that effect.

But no. We got him unharnessed and he charged off into the village chanting his new word the whole way. I had the cart about unloaded for tonight’s stop when he came back, still muttering the word, and happily talking about his new ‘sticky book’. He’s very happy about the pictures in the book, but still doesn’t understand the content and says they make him feel funny.

With Azurei ill and Eclair off on a mission from her patron and the elf busy doing absolutely nothing, I’ve made a number of otherwise easily avoided mistakes today. A good number of them. I’ve badly given a dwarc with no concept of his own age beyond probably more than two tens the talk. Confused him. Accidentally explained the concept of whores, badly. Confused him worse. And, I think, more or less convinced Chonck that he needs to be able to read books that have words instead of pictures before he’s allowed to have sex. As long as he never thinks to ask anyone else, that might hold up. Maybe.

I hope.

In any case, if this gets back to Churt or if our attempts at diplomacy go wrong because of it, I think I’m going to blame a wizard. Or that farmer. Or better still, I’ll blame the elf.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lot of this session was just us prompting Chonck's player and letting him run with it. The "stickybook" and Chonck's favorite word were both things that wound up coming up a great many times over the course of the campaign. This and the last chapter were also early places where I had to start figuring ways to write around players not being around for game. It wound up being a good way of emphasizing some early aspects of the party's dynamics.


	4. A Quick Update on an Uneventful Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The best days are often the ones in which little happens so that little can go wrong.

12th of Spring, Year 256

Good news! We have Eclair back and Azurei seems to be feeling much better.

Less good news, Eclair doesn’t seem terribly happy about the situation with Chonck’s new vocabulary. Can’t blame her really. She’s not real pleased with the ‘sticky book’ situation either, but that at least has been taken care of for now.

We’ve convinced Chonck that, given he figures the priests stole the book from its rightful owner, then the good thing to do would be to return it to One-Eyed Jimmy. So, Azurei escorted him to One-Eyed Jimmy’s house and we owe Chonck a book with pictures. Possibly two.

With that promise secured, the rest of the trip to White Hall was quick. Though it did take awhile to get Chonck harnessed up, since he was all but dancing with excitement and kept trying to dash off to get on the way. Getting him to not bowl over the walking traffic after we got there was also a minor issue, but easily dealt with.

We’ve got both the trade agreements for Dunhill, the village we stayed in yesterday, and White Hall and, of course, the first batch of trade good from White Hall. It’ll be a good boost to Caskfire’s supplies.

We’ll be heading out in the morning. Tonight, we make like the elf and drink.

(The following section was added in a somewhat shakier hand, presumably later in the day)

Make a point of explaining rules to Chonck before punishing him for breaking them. Bad idea to expect he’d understand the spirit of the rule rather than the word. Bad idea Sunshine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the first of a handful of times that I added in "academic" notes to Sunshine's journal entries. In this instance, it also served to note that she had done something wrong without breaking character and having her detail that, while at the bar, she had stabbed Chonck in the hand.  
> We had had a scene where Chonck, the 5 intelligence barbarian Librarian, had his first experience with hard liquor. Sunshine attempted to get him to pace himself by setting a candle on the bar in front of him and telling him not to have another drink until the candle was gone, wording note gone rather than burned down. Chonck drank his drink, flat palm smashed the candle, and ordered another. So Sunshine stabbed him in the hand that he'd used to smash the candle.  
> Of course, this was also the session in which she attempted to trade Wren for more liquor before deciding that Churt probably wouldn't like that.


	5. Bandits and Necromancers and Other Elf Related Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wren continues to be an issue for the Caskfire security team. Bandits are a problem because they have problems. The friendly human town might not be so friendly after all.

14th of Spring, Year 256

The Ride back to Caskfire was largely uneventful.

Unfortunately, once we got back and reported, Churt insisted that Chonck at least attempt to actually do his duties as the fortress’ librarian. He’s to organize the library, at least alphabetically, and is being required to attempt sounding out the titles before she’ll allow anyone to help him. With any luck, any luck at all, she’ll relent on that and help him sooner rather than later. Chonck’ll wind up stuck there forever otherwise.

As it were, the militia headed into the woods to the north to plant traps for any Goblins that wonder through. Since we dealt with the forward encampment they seem to have swapped to actually scouting us, just using one or two to a group to avoid notice. This should put a dent in that and, I think, our trap master, Gimbal Deathweaver, has something beyond just bear traps and tripwires planned for later.

The elf was meant to go with the militia. Had volunteered to accompany them. Was excited to go with them. I told her to listen to the militia commander. Do what he says. Nice and reasonable. Easy to understand.

But no. Of course the elf abandoned the militia operation and rode in on our scouting operation to the south. Made all kinds of noise. Interrupted planning for approaching the campfire we spotted with talk about some basket on a tree game. At first they seemed to be a group of hunters, so we questioned them and shared a meal. Once we left though, the elf was finally useful and spotted their signal arrow.

I scared that group off, but there were dozens of other signal arrows in response to that one. It’s no wonder the roads have been troubled.

We managed to catch one sneaking up on our group. He tried to run as soon as he realized, but Azurei managed to talk him down to a point we could get him talking. It seems the bandits are scattered for now. There’s one main group and then a number of smaller ones. With any luck, and I hate how much I’m relying on luck here, we will have a meeting with representatives of this bandit “hunters’ guild” in three days. If they’re willing to watch the roads rather than pillage them we should be able to trade with them. It would save us a fight and deal with most of the bandit problem for the human traders.

With Churt’s approval, of course.

17th of Spring, Year 256

Three days is an incredibly long time when there’s things that need doing. I’ve been spending the time helping talk to the captured Goblin the millita brought back. That and helping Eclair with some recipe translations since she doesn’t speak Goblin. Apparently discussion of cannibalism amongst Goblins has her eager to experiment with recipes using them. It’s keeping her mildly distracted.

Chonck’s made his way up to the “H” section of his library.

From here things get a touch more complicated. We went to the big oak hill to meet with the bandits’ leader as planned. They are willing to safeguard the roads for the fortress in exchange for helping them rebuild their fort and trading with them.

On the concerning side the Black Hand’s leader, Rikke the Warg, is only willing to have her people watch the roads for Caskfire and its dwarves. That is, at least unless we can stop White Hall from sending more undead into the Black Hand’s territory or, for that matter, anywhere further south than Dunhill.

It would seem that our friendly trade partners are a bunch of necromancers who’ve been sending their creations south to collect more corpses.

I’ll have to ask Churt about it. Hopefully it’s nothing she knew about when she sent us there. Not that that matters immediately, we’ll need to travel back to White Hall and investigate. Hopefully we can find some way to talk to someone who would know something. Hopefully it’ll be someone who can do something about this.

Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully. I sound like an apprentice cleric. Though I suppose the point stands.

In any case. Rikke also mentioned that lately the undead they had been sending were Goblins rather than human. This suggests that there are more Goblins than our scouting suggests, which is worrisome. Or, that someone is providing them with Goblin corpses to make their undead from, which might be more worrisome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It would appear that my Chapter Notes for the first chapter are still sticking around on the others? Gonna see about fixing that.
> 
> We got a lot done during this session. Wren's player misunderstood the whole deal with their character being away from the party and helping set the traps. They had assumed that that would happen and then the party would set out once they had returned, but that was not what had been intended. This was one of several points in which I wanted to have Sunshine chase Wren off, but also did not want to be mean to one of my friends over it.


	6. There is a School Full of Mages Who are Definitely Not Necromancers Who are Definitely Not Teaching Necromancy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following up on the Black Hand bandits' complaints regarding undead being sent to harass them, the party returns to White Hall to deal with the issue. Bureaucracy finds itself circumvented with special cookies.

18th of Spring, Year 256

The elf has brought me a rather non-portable portable writing table with some kind of clamp on one end. I’m not sure what the purpose of this was, but maybe it’ll be useful once we have use of the wagon back? Chonck’s still on the “H”s so it might be a while on that.

On to our glorious return to White Hall and more information on our Goblin problem.

We ran into a group of them just off the road as we headed out. It seems their king sent them orders to attack any traders leaving Caskfire. We dealt with them and took the letter and some kind of carved chicken mask from the leader’s body. I’m going to hang it off my belt, maybe it’ll serve as a warning, maybe it just looks nifty.

Anyway, the letter specified lightly guarded caravans, presumably to keep their losses down. Said to do the attacks because they “want to keep them worried.” I’m assuming that the “them” here is Caskfire and that the King Eebaku who signed it was also our mysterious Mr. E from before. It’s something to worry about after I’m sure that White Hall and the Black Hand are going to play nice with each other.

The tower in White Hall was a pain to get into. The doorman was a nuisance to deal with, likely a facet of his job but all the same. I would have rather liked to not have to have mentioned the danger to our trade agreements this poses. It got us into the tower proper, but that’s something that can only be used so many times to any effect.

The whole tower is some kind of school and, despite the Minister’s insistence otherwise, it is definitely a school full of necromancers teaching necromancy. He, and his school and possibly the whole city, is very much up to something. At the very least, bringing up the bandits’ issues got him seriously panicked. One of Eclair’s special cookies and a touch of magic to bring the room’s temperature up bit by bit can only have helped with that.

End of it all, we got a guarantee from the Minister’s assistant that there won’t be any necromantic creatures going south of Dunhill anymore. Something fishy about that, but he made the claim under the Minister’s power so it’ll have to do for now. When I asked if they’d had any issues with Goblins in the area he also confirmed that no Goblins were anywhere near White Hall, so either he’s lying, someone’s importing the Goblin corpses, or there’s another necromancer in the area acting outside of White Hall. I’m thinking we’ll need to keep an eye on White Hall for the time being.

Needless to say, I don’t think any of us wanted to stay the night after all that. It’s likely a good thing we risked it too, since we ran into a merchant on the road to Caskfire. He was armed but alone, no telling what the Goblins might have done to him. I’ll have to make sure he’s warned about them before he leaves.

All things to worry about tomorrow. I have a room of my own now with a bed of my own and a map engraved in the wall. Churt’s done a really good job with the engraving, but no one would expect anything less than that from her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point in the game, Eclair's character was edging ever closer to being chaotic evil rather than chaotic good. It started with the goblin based recipes and spun into her having three bags of cookies at all times. The good cookies, regular plain cookies. The "good" cookies, heavily drugged and great for pressing mages who totally aren't necromancers for information. And the goblin cookies, full of goblin meat and other questionable things. The whole deal in the head necromancer's office was a lot of fun and one of just a handful of times I got to use Sunshine's Thaumaturgy ability to any effect.
> 
> Side bar, one of the engravings in each of the PC's rooms was of their names in dwarven script. For Sunshine, two separate glyphs for madness are used.


	7. A Goblin Attack and the Destruction of the Surface Farms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caskfire is reminded that they have some manner of goblin king readying his forces against them when a large force attacks unexpectedly.

20th of Spring, Year 256

I would have liked to have left the Goblin issue until we knew how the situation with the Black Hand and Whitehall was going to work out. I would have liked that, but here we are.

A force of Goblins attacked the surface farms. By the time we were alerted and the militia was formed up and ready, the fields were on fire and the Goblin forces were advancing. The farms are, for the time being, mostly a loss. We can replant and the food we get from our trade partners and the mushroom farms will hold us. Well, will hold us at least until we can get the surface farms operating again.

The Goblin attack force was thoroughly routed. Between the adventurers and the militia, most of them were dealt with before they could react. Eclair, Chonck, and I followed the ones that managed to retreat. Albeit, we followed them separately and with no planning. Something to work on later perhaps. Regardless, I managed to track them to a hidden tunnel and flagged down Eclair. She wiped out the lot of them. With any luck, we also destroyed any supplies they were using.

There was, it turns out, a survivor back in the fields. One of the Goblins caught in the back swing of one of Chonck’s attacks was knocked out and away from the battle.

From what I understand, she speaks common and went willingly with the guards. Importantly, that might mean that we can get more information out of her than the last one. A healthy, calm Goblin has to be easier to deal with than a panicked or injured one. I hope.

Give that the storage room we’d been keeping the other captive Goblin in is still a mess after it died, this one will be staying in the library room. It’s cleaner and largely unused, since Chonck keeps all the books with him. Maybe if she speaks common she can read it too. That would be helpful, have another way to keep Chonck distracted when we aren’t adventuring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fights always wound up interesting for the party, this one mostly served to reinforce the threat that the goblins posed because there was very little we could do about the damage already done. The DM did a really good job with using this to push us forward towards a bigger fight in the near future.


	8. An Impromptu Tournament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the battle, before the war, Chonck wishes to test his strength against the expedition leader, Churt, and the party takes a break from their mission for a small tournament.

21st of Spring, Year 256

In light of the recent Goblin attack, information gathered from our new captive, and general sense given our current situation, the day was spent having an impromptu tournament.

Chonck wanted to spar with the elf and it spiraled out a bit from there.

Never let it be said that I don’t want to see the elf get hit, but I could have told them that Churt was going to win as soon as she agreed to join in. Dwarven heavy infantry is nothing to joke about, especially when they’re in full stone armor.

Not sure that we learned much of anything from this.

Chonck gave a fair effort against Churt in the first round and beat the elf to take third place. Azurei can sprout wings at will, something of a shared trait for Azamaar I think. Chonck has responded to this by insistently calling her a “ghost bird person” in much the same vein that he refers to me as a “devil person” and Eclair a “child”. Regardless, she did a good job against the elf and as well as could be expected against Churt.

I suspect that we’ll be requesting a number of the heavy infantry dwarves to help deal with the Yoyabo pits now that the party has seen what they can do. So at least that came out of this. That and some new armor requisitions.

Going to need to remember to also request a more solid lock for my room’s door. Chonck refers to people with descriptors because he doesn’t know better. The elf, uncaring and a pain as ever, uses Chonck’s descriptors and argues for using them with the people they describe to the point of making Azurei uncomfortable. Let’s be honest, to the point of frustrating me enough to finally attack her. I aimed for her knee, but apparently the previous two fights had taken more out of the elf than I expected.

I’ve been doing my best to rein this in, my temper isn’t usually this bad, but it wasn’t enough.

Churt is the expedition leader and I should have brought this up with her before acting myself. The elf clearly has no respect for anyone in the fortress and I’m concerned that that will become a problem for more than just me. As it is, that’s something less immediate than the new lock, given that after being seen to by Eclair the elf suggested that she would likely kill me in my sleep.

That’s one thing I believe her on. Ability or not, I’m sure that the elf will make the attempt. That doesn’t mean I’m going to make it easy for her or lose sleep over it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine's attempted wounding of Wren is something that was being built up to since the campaign started, something that I sort of wish I had reflected better in previous chapters. This is just a direct port though, or I'd be tempted to edit these and flesh things out a little more.


	9. The Yoyabo Pits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party invades the Yoyabo goblin pits after the attack on Caskfire. More is revealed regarding Eebaku and a strange new ally is found.

27th of Spring, Year 256

The confrontation with the Yoyabo Goblin pit has, so far, been a slaughter. Between Azurei and Eclair’s magics and the heavy infantry’s martial skills we’ve wiped out the entirety of the Goblin’s surface forces and fought our way into the pit itself. That has slowed our advance down a bit, due to branching pathways and closer quarters, but we reached what seems to be the central hub of the pit and Chonck as sealed the entries to most of the main branches so that we can deal with stragglers more safely.

Unfortunately, despite the damage we’ve done to the Yoyabo Goblins, it doesn’t seem that they would be willing to surrender. I offered the option to a group we found headed by a Goblin called Clever, he used the opportunity to attempt an ambush on the party. A few of them escaped to further down the tunnels, but for the most part. For the most part it’s just been killing.

We did find a source of information on the Goblin King Eebaku though. A rather strange source of information, but still.

The Goblins had imprisoned one of their own at the bottom of a well as punishment for trying to trap Eebaku as a source of power. This Obcobra claims to have been down there for nearly a year, sustained by her magics. She’s willing, to a limited vengful extent, to help us fight Eebaku and his Goblins and has what I can only hope is information on where we might get a weapon capable of harming him.

It would seem that there is a creature called the Eater of the Dead and that it may have or may provide materials to make a weapon we could use to harm a demon lord.

It’s a ways off, probably several days travel, so we would need to finish driving the Goblins out of Yoyabo and return to Caskfire to report and restock. There will need to be guards at the pit to prevent Goblins from returning to bother Caskfire while we are away. That would also require a change in scouting patterns. And above all that we will be relying on the Obcobra’s directions, so we should plan for extra days out or some manner of trickery.

I will need to talk to Churt about all of this. She may not want to put a guard detail at the pit or maybe she would want to try caving in the side tunnels instead. It would be for me to advise and her to worry over.

(Several paragraphs were started and aggressively scribbled out.)

The Obcobra said that Eebaku was looking for someone in the area some time before our builders struck the earth. The time line seems to have coincided with when we were first scouting for a good place to start digging. Who would be important enough to a demon lord to bring him into the Plains of Burning?

Should I warn Churt that there might be cultists in Caskfire? It seems ridiculous to think. No one in the family would worship a demon lord. Would they?

Could the Obcobra be lying to try and secure our trust more securely? She is our only source on this. This and the Eater of the Dead too. If that were to be a trap, it could be a way to wipe out the fortress’s protectors and leave everyone else open to attack.

(At this point a number of pages had been neatly cut from the journal.)

I don’t like any of this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The battle for this one was pretty fun in game, but also ran super long even with a lot of the goblins being one hit point canon fodder. I kind of wanted to try going more considering with Sunshine's journaling here, to show that all the fighting was having some effect on her. Your mileage may vary on if I succeeded or not.


	10. The Throne Room, The Honor Guard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party battles significantly stronger goblins than they've faced before in a throne room that might as well be a temple.

28th of Spring, Year 256

Can not let the others see my hands shaking like this. Poison has mostly run its course, but the tips of my fingers are still numb. It looks bad that I passed out in front of everyone from it. Worse that Chonck expressed concern over it and I waved him off. That makes me seem careless.

At least the elf was elsewhere. No one is certain where she got to, but it was away from our last round of fighting.

We wiped out or chased away all the Goblins who were still in the side passages. I assume most of the ones who escaped were dealt with by the infantry dwarves. The passages are blocked to prevent more Goblins from returning, that should make the area safer.

There was something to that final fight though. The Goblins were better armed and armored by far than the others in the pit or the ones that have been out in the field. It seems we may have found some kind of outpost throne room for their King, possibly some kind of shrine to him given the amount of food and shiny things stacked around the throne. It seems like the armored Goblins would have left us alone if I hadn’t knocked over one of the baskets of offerings while checking for traps.

Further, this could tell us something about the Goblin’s tactics. They struck with poisoned javelins first, presumably to weaken their enemies. Then they attacked in small groups. I would have wanted to see how they reacted to more opponents than just Chonck and I being fully in the room for most of the fight. They were definitely some kind of honor guard.

Hopefully, I can learn more about that from the one we captured before anything happens to him. There’s a hole in his lower torso the size of a whiskey bottle, so there’s no telling how long he can last even with it patched up by Azurei. Chonck has named him “Leaky” and intends to make him do chores for him.

Eclair has already offered Leaky a knife. Twice.

I feel like we have also learned here just how little the elf does. She left shortly after we met the Obcobra and, even with the Obcobra doing nothing to help, the final battle went just as well without the elf as it would have with. Something to bring up with Churt that.

I should stop here though, the numbness isn’t getting any better and I worry that the poison took more out of me than I expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of me wished that I had structured this differently. A short entry to reflect the effects of the poison on Sunshine and then a longer one in the same chapter detailing more of what had happened. Looking back, it doesn't feel like she's been effected by anything except general frustration over Wren having run off.


	11. Recovery and Chonck's Ambitions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sunshine has been forced to take a break to recover from being poisoned and Chonck has determined that he should have a proper orcish second name, regardless of how uncomfortable the one he wants makes the rest of the party.

33rd of Spring, Year 256

I come down with a little case of being poisoned and variably conscious and as soon as we get back to Caskfire I’m ordered to rest until I can walk to the Inn and back without falling over. Not as if I needed it. Worked through worse more than once. More than twice even.

Not like making notes for an improved map, or even improving an existing map, would tire me out so badly the poison would take me and I would waste away.

But the elf made herself useful and figured out what the poison was. Some root the Goblins grind up.A paralytic of some sort, apparently. The elf also kept saying something about it being fun if it can be diluted enough. I question that, but between her and Eclair it seems likely to turn up again sooner than later.

Hopefully not in my morning beer.

Couple of issues with Conck since we got back. He has been determined as of late to grant himself an orcish last name. Neverminding that those are earned rather than given, the issue is that he wants to name himself after his favorite word and an orcish folk hero. He has dug his heels in on this one, is not willing to listen to the other party members when they say that his using profanity like that makes them uncomfortable.

Makes no sense to me why he would want to change from being a Stonecask, his mother raised him as one. Best I know the only other half orc he ever met was his brother.

At least for the moment we have him convinced not to use his favorite word again until he has earned his name. Which has him swearing to eat the Eater of the Dead. Or to fight it all on his own. I would be tempted to let him if there was not the worry of it killing him. Given that he has decided that I hate orcs, and that the elf is supporting him in his quest for his chosen last name, it seems like a good idea to keep an eye on Chonck.

Which leads to the Goblin Chonck claimed back at Yoyabo. It would seem that Leaky escaped sometime while I was recovering. Made it all the way from the Library to the forests without being noticed, despite leaving a trail the whole way. It could just be that Leaky paid good attention to what was going on when he was brought in, but it seems more likely that he had help. When given the chance, I want to ask Tusk about it. It seems like she should know something one way or the other.

No time to take care of that now though. Tomorrow we head out to the Goblin pit of Eebakuzi and the Eater of the Dead. I need to pack what I can and finish restocking before the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The entire thing with Chonck wanting an orcish name became an on going thing after he acquired a book of stories about an orcish folk hero, specifically he wanted to take the folk hero's name for his own. This just utterly confused Sunshine because neither of them had ever been anything but Stonecask dwarves as far as it mattered to her.
> 
> Gonna start adding the links to the original posts.  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2019/08/08/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-11/


	12. After the Eater of the Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chonck still seeks to claim his name, seeks it despite the consequences.

38th of Spring, Year 256

It has been a most strange few days.

Chonck has remained upset about the name situation and continued to insist that he would slay the Eater of the Dead himself and claim his name. He kept circling back to Eater of the Eater.

I feel like that has likely changed.

The door to the Eater of the Dead’s lair felt like it was miles away from the rest of the Eebakuzi Goblin pit, behind a set of distinctly not Goblin made doors. Huge doors with Goblin skeletons piled up around the sides of it.

Chonck raged as soon as we got to them and slammed belly first into the room beyond.

The Eater of the Dead was an enormous spider, intelligent enough to communicate and big enough to make Chonck look small. The room was lit by strange blue lights that, as soon as Chonck hit the Eater of the Dead, rushed in to surround it. Like a protective spell of some sort. Azurei and Eclair’s spells seemed to have no effect until they began to use more advanced magics. Even with the elf having cast a spell to enhance everyone’s weapons, it seemed like physical attacks did little to it either.

But we beat it, some how, we beat it without losing anyone.

I am worried about what happened after though.

Chonck made good on his threat to make his name by eating the Eater of the Dead. As soon as it was dead, he ripped off one of its legs and tore into it. Then the lights that had surrounded it for the entire battle surrounded and flowed into him. The lights were spirits, the spirits of every being that the Eater of the Dead had consumed. It granted him what seems to be the knowledge of all those spirits and the Eater of the Dead itself.

He can count much better now and read and put ideas together better. He has an idea of what makes something contextually appropriate. But it left him badly shaken, sitting in a corner trying to process what was happening to him. I don’t know how this will effect him or how he interacts with the party going forward. It seems like the kind of thing that could break some one quite easily. Here’s hoping he comes out of it well.

The good news in all of this, we did find what I think was the weapon the Obcobra was talking about. When the spirits attached themselves to Chonck, the only thing left glowing was the Eater of the Dead’s fangs, which suggests they hold some power. We harvested those and its venom sacs. Once we get back to Caskfire I want to have one of the craftsdwarves put hilts on them. They should make fine daggers.

39th of Spring, Year 256

Even with Chonck in a bad way, we are making good time back to Caskfire.

I find myself thinking more and more about what the skeletons outside of the Eater of the Dead’s lair meant. They were worryingly clean, like something meant for display. While the Goblin corpses within its lair were still covered with bits of meat or even hair and armor in some cases.

It seems possible that this is where our friends in White Hall were getting the Goblin corpses they were sending after Rikke’s bandits. I don’t want to borrow trouble, certainly. But if we have cut their access to bodies it could result in any number of reactions. It might be worth keeping an eye on them for the next while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a lot of Chonck's behaviors can be chalked up to his having five intelligence and his player having been dedicated to the roll. What happened here was that, after eating the part from the Eater of the Dead, Chonck got a permanent intelligence boost of three, leaving him just slightly under average stat wise. His player still played with that, with him adjusting to the intelligence and having that but not the education to go with it. It was a really good bit of roll playing.
> 
> Original post link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2019/08/15/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-12/


	13. The Surface Farms are Wiped Out Again by Wild Hogs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having wiped out two goblin pits and claimed both the knowledge and fangs of the Eater of the Dead, the party returns home to Caskfire only to find its farms once again being over run.

42nd Spring, Year 256

We had been back just long enough for Chonck to disappear into the library, presumably to pull himself back together, when Churt ordered the party back topside to deal with an invasion of wild boar that had been eating their way through the fields and destroying any fences in their way.

The vast majority of the militia dwarves were already out dealing with their own assigned fields. There were waves upon waves of boar rushing in. Most of them just seemed lost or desperate to find food. The last few seemed driven forward.

Were driven forward. I do not know how we wound up dealing with the only dire boar in the lot of them. Thing is bigger than Chonck and so battle scared that I had a hard time telling the difference between the arrows that he’d been hit with and the ruff of fur down his back. Smart too. After Azurei used one of her brain melting spells on him and failed to kill him, he avoided her. But then when Eclair used one of her last eldritch blasts on him, he saw she was tired out and charged.

The elf managed to calm him down enough to catch him. There were remains of a Goblin harness on him with his name inscribed on it, it translates to something like “Bear-render.” So not only is this dire boar strong and smart enough to run off a celestial warlock, though an admittedly exhausted one, but he also earned a name before we ran the Goblins out of the area. It seems that Bear-render is going to be a good addition to the fortress.

That said, this is going to put us irreparably behind on growing crops for winter, I fear. At least we should have enough salted pork and mushrooms to keep the fortress fed. I am also a touch worried that the other animals that the Goblins were eating will have similar population explosions that we will have to deal with.

For now though, I have to clean the hog droppings off the crossbow I borrowed before the quartermaster will approve repairs to mine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I DMed this session, I don't quite remember why but our regular DM was going to be out of town. This was back when the memes were going around about wild pigs attacking people's children, I threatened to run it as a joke but the party was about the idea.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2019/09/13/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-13/


	14. Elves in the Dwarven Fortress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The goblin's King Eebaku seems to have turned his eye towards a near by elven city, leaving a small band of escapees to beg for help from Caskfire's security team.

49th Spring, Year 256

Elven emissaries arrived today.

Churt called us to the tavern to talk to them. That might have been to save herself from dealing with them further.

I should avoid being so cruel.

They were seeking help from “the small folk” in saving their home from an army of Goblins lead by yet more Goblins in black armor.If they came to a Dwarven fortress, they have to be desperate. I would have thought that their pride would keep them from it. Their leader promised that their generosity would be near endless if we succeeded. So there is that.

Chonk seems very much back to himself and immediately asked after the library. So did Azurei, for tales and music, and Eclair, for recipes. There is no telling what the elf wants. Never is. Though I admit, I am also unsure as to what I would want from our visitors. I should figure that out after we return.

We left as soon as we could gather our arms and half of the Regulars. They and the elves last five warriors will be joining us on the journey. I think the elves might be regretting the choice to join us though. Between Eclair’s poisoned cookies and wondering about ways to cook elf meat and if that would be cannibalism for her and Chonck’s asides about the Eater of the Dead and the screaming Goblins in his head, they seem quite disturbed.

We had barely convinced Chonck to eat some salted pork and a handful of herbs Eclair had pilfered from the apothecary before running into a group of these black armored Goblins. They put up much more of a fight than we have seen in the past. If we run into a large group of them we might be in trouble.

We might be in trouble any way. Based on the Goblin Chonck ate out of this group the elves’ city is already burned. We may be to late to save anyone. I can only hope not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In game, this was an excellent turning point for the party. We knew that we had to fight Eebaku, we knew that we needed non-mortal weapons and had even acquired our first magical item in the form of the daggers made from the Eater of the Dead's fangs, and the enemies were getting stronger. It just felt good even as it felt like our characters were actually in danger.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2019/11/16/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-14/


	15. Meeting Eebaku

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the ruins of the elven city Chonck meets a new friend and the party is faced with their nemesis and the truth he offers them.

50th of Spring, Year 256

That was bad.

Most everything was burned. There was no one to save.

The only thing that still lived was a tree, tall and unmarred by all the horror around it except for the piles of dead Goblins surrounding it. Some kind of advisor tree according to the elf.

Chonck, of course, of course, licked the advisor tree in an attempt to communicate with it. It would seem that it had killed the Goblins surrounding it itself somehow. More importantly, it informed him that the Goblins’ leader was to the south with the bulk of the force he attacked the city with.

Silly as it may seem now, I think it wanted to keep fighting the Goblins that harmed its people, its home. When Chonck asked it for a twig so that he could keep talking to it, it lowered an absolutely massive branch into his hands. That branch was at least as big as his maul and I would swear thrummed with enough power that even I could feel it. Chonck seemed excited at the prospect of fighting Goblins with his new friend, so I can hardly complain.

[The next several pages contained a great deal of scribbled out text. A small number of pages are missing.]

The Goblins’ leader, their Lord Eebaku, claimed to be my father.

I would not have believed it from a creature that looked like his disguised self, a Goblin twice the size of any others wearing a finer version of the same black armor as the rest of his army. Having seen him take on a demonic form though. Having seen myself in the mirror. I cannot help but believe that he could be my father.

Why did I never ask mom more about when she found me? It never seemed important. It never seemed like it could be important. But to have something like this just show up, I want him to be lying. I want it to be a matter of some demon who looks close enough to right, or can shape shift to close enough, just trying to get me to turn on my family. That would make sense. That would be reasonable.

The things he said about my youth though, about trying to find me when I was growing up, and his claims to know more still. I can’t help but wonder.

It makes me feel a little ill honestly. He claimed that he had burned down the elves’ city and slaughtered so many of them was simply that they refused to join his empire. It seems certain that he would do the same to Caskfire.

I cannot let that happen.

We have something that might be useful. Chonck asked him if any books had survived the fires. The answer should be obvious, but Eebaku’s response to Chonck’s follow up request for a book interests me. He threw one to Chonck. Between all the talk of blood making the grass grow tall in the ruins of his enemies’ homes and the claims of tremendous power it looks like it might be his personal journal. It could be another resource for finding out more about our enemy, but as easily as he turned it over I doubt that it can be trusted.

I will work on a full translation once we have returned to Caskfire.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love a twist, I really do. Back when the DM was first planning this campaign we had talked about Sunshine being a secret agent to the big bad evil guy, that she was knowingly his kid and would turn against the party and Caskfire for the final battle. That didn't wind up happening just because of how Sunshine eventually developed, but it was still cool to have that big reveal moment.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2019/12/12/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-15/


	16. To Caskfire Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The elven city lost, the goblin horde undefeated, the party finds what they can and returns to the fortress.

51st of Spring, Year 256

After the Goblin horde left, we did comb the elven city for survivors or usable items. There were a handful of books that survived from being in a closed cabinet, they are a little toasted but otherwise in good shape. An enchanted long bow that Azurei has laid claim to, of our party she seems the most able to use it.

There was also the Arch Druid’s staff.

It would seem that he died when the Goblin’s lord first offered to take the elves into his empire. I am told that the Arch Druid dueled Eebaku one on one and held him off long enough for a warning to get out. The staff did not seem magic at first, though the elves have assured us that it is. It looks like a walking stick, nothing more. They were glad that no one in the party wanted to keep it for themselves though, it would seem that this staff has been passed down by many Arch Druids and will continue to be passed down as soon as they appoint a new one.

And, predictably, Eclair has been treating the corpses like her own personal butcher shop. The elves told her that eating the bodies of the fallen was acceptable so long as she did not waste anything, so at least this habit of hers is not offering offense. Chonck helped.

52nd of Spring, Year 256

When we returned to Caskfire Churt was outside. Outside in the sun. It was concerning to say the least. She said she needed to see us as soon as we arrived.

The Obcobra has been cursing dwarves within the fortress with little provocation. Made one fellow’s entire beard fall out when he took a bit of food from her. Turned another handful into a mix of dwarf and boar when they complained about not being strong enough. Then a fair number of other more temporary curses. Churt wanted us to talk the Obcobra away from all the cursing, unfortunately she is unwilling to stop.

Given that and that we want to keep her close enough to be helpful once the fight against the Goblin horde starts in earnest, we convinced her to move into one of the nearby empty Goblin warrens. We even had a crew of dwarves help clean it out for her. She seemed to like that idea well enough.

Problem solved for the time being I suppose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one, again, ran short because a lot of it was table talk between the lot of us and joking. The story itself had taken a somber turn, but we also got to have the fun bit of talking the obcobra out of staying at Caskfire and throwing curses around constantly.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2019/12/19/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-16/


	17. Plans and Translations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Translating Eebaku's own journal suggests a long running plot to dig into not only Caskfire but dwarven society itself. A plot all in service to an empire and balanced on an unwitting key.

59th of Spring, Year 256

I have been at this translation job for the better part of the week.

Eebaku’s journal is largely megalomaniac babbling about his powers and the grand empire he will build to cover the worlds. It is oddly fixated on me as some sort of key to infiltrating dwarven society. Not certain if he realizes how little sway a Stonecask or a teifling has in greater society, but he also talks about having an agent in the fortress. Someone he seems to have been hoping could arrange for my use as a key. Need to find out who this agent is and how much of a threat they could pose to the fortress.

The references to an agent go back as far as when we were planning for construction and selecting a suitable location for Caskfire. That someone who has been here all this time is supposed to be one of his agents concerns me a good deal.

I reported to Churt on it and she is collecting a list of everyone it could be so we can start figuring out how to best approach them. She had the idea that I might act interested in joining Eebaku to draw the agent out and get them to confess, but I would rather wait and have a better idea of who our potential suspects. No sense in going around drawing extra attention to being the only demon blooded creature here or that the Goblin lord who burned down the elves’ city claimed to have sired me. That just seems like a good way to wind up studded with arrows from elves who cannot fight the one who actually hurt them.

There was another book Chonck had, some kind of compendium of anatomy and summoning rituals for various infernal creatures. If I turn my attention to that then I might be able to figure out a way to deal with Eebaku before he sends an “envoy” to invite Caskfire into his empire. It has to be worth trying.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was a bridge between plot points. I needed a down time scene unconnected from the greater plot but still able to tie the attack on the elves and the next steps forward together. It was nice to slow it down a touch, not going to lie.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2019/12/26/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-17/


	18. Knowing the Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Eebaku's personal journal and the demonic compendium Chonck found, Sunshine seeks answers and with answers a next step.

60th of Spring, Year 256

I am not sure why Chonck had that compendium, it hardly seems like the kind of thing his mom would have kept in the main library back in the Mountain Home. Disturbingly in-depth in some places.

Given that I, assuming that he is not lying to gain a pawn and his journal suggests he is not, am half of whatever Eebaku is I should be able to use some of the research from the compendium to figure out what Eebaku is and how to defeat him.

Given that there appear to be less than a handful of demons or devils that can shape shift like he did, that gave me a valuable starting point. That he was powerful enough to defeat the elve’s Arch Druid in single combat would make him incredibly powerful. Something like a pit fiend or a balor. If I can find away to narrow it down to if he is a devil or a demon, that would allow me to figure out which he is likely to be.

I need to talk to Azurei and Eclair.

[The writing resumed in a shakier hand at this point.]

Having been both stabbed with and consumed silver, I can confirm that being stabbed by a halfling pastry chief hurts and that silver does not seem to have any harmful effects on me. That would suggest that I, and thus Eebaku, am likely to be demonic in nature rather than diabolic. A demon rather than a devil.

Being demonic would then further suggest that Eebaku is a balor. According to the compendium, a balor’s greatest weakness is their true name. That means we should have a way to avoid the tremendously bad idea of fighting a balor provided we can find out what his true name is. Which means we need to find out where it is so that we can banish him? Force him away? Bind him from harming Caskfire or the Mountain Home?

Worries for later.

There has to be a tablet somewhere with his true name on it from back when he was first summoned to this world. Has to be. That just means we have to find where it is and collect it. Which means we have to find out where mom found me. Which means we are going to the Mountain Home to see if any of mom’s old adventuring party is still there and still remembers where that was.

Churt has given me a writ with a request for additional troops to turn in while we are there. I loath the idea of leaving Caskfire just now, with the possibility that we might return and find it over run with Eebaku’s Goblin horde and all the dwarves here run out or gone back to the stone. But what else can be done? This is our best chance at stopping him.

I cannot help but worry that any of my research could be wrong. My seeming immunity to silver might be a result of the human half or he might be something else. We could get to where mom found me and discover that he had been summoned elsewhere. I need this to be the right path. It has to be. If it turns out wrong, if I am wrong here, then Caskfire might be gone when I come back. Not sure how to handle that. So it has to be right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This session left me wishing I didn't keep my main blog strictly PG, there were so many good jokes that were just off color enough that I couldn't include them. All things considered, Sunshine's attempts at research here were mostly guess work and desperation. This was also a bridge, but the rest of the party was there to help cross it.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/01/02/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-18/


	19. Caskfire Calls for Aid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Caskfire security team heads to the dwarven Mountain Home to secure assistance for Caskfire and to find leads on the cult sanctuary Sunshine was found in. Where the party leads, trouble follows.

64th of Spring, Year 256

In any other city I would have worried about attracting pick pockets as often as I checked on the request for aid. But it has been turned in and I made certain they understood how important this was. How urgent the need could be with the attention of a balor on Caskfire and us as under staffed as we have been.

There is nothing further I can do on that front.

Something that I could and did affect, though perhaps should not have, is convincing one of the guardsdwarves not to arrest Eclair just now. I will have to return her to the city to serve her sentence once this is over, but the fellow was convinced readily enough that we needed her as part of the attempt to keep Caskfire from being overrun. It would seem that while I was away some conversation convinced her that it would be a brilliant idea to brandish a knife and shout to the entirety of the market district that they were edible. Further, once the guard showed up to try quieting her down, she apparently offered him one of her Goblin cookies fully acknowledging that it was made with the flesh of an intelligent being.

It should be noted that Chonck was also very nearly arrested for helping Eclair in her argument and offering the guard another Goblin cookie. I am certain that the only reason I did not have to argue for a stay on his arrest is because the guard recognized him. Easy enough to do given he grew up here and is one of two half orc Stonecasks.

We got Chonck back to Aunt Frense at the library so he could return the books he had taken. She was overwhelmed with joy when she found out that he finally had learned how to read. Even let him keep the books he had not read yet and take a few more yet. Azurei helped get the books cleaned from all the Goblin bits and other detritus from Choncks bag using her magic.

The guard had tracked down cousin Dundee for me while we worked. Turns out he had been part of mom’s party back then and was visiting between tracking ever larger crocodiles to wrestle. Good news is, he still remembered where the cult’s strong hold was well enough to give us directions. Strange news is that he and the elf hit it off sooner than introductions could happen. I assume it was the helmet he had crafted from a crocodile’s skull, it could be a match for the elf’s scale armor I suppose.

In any case, Aunt Frense asked us back to the library for dinner. We will spend the night there and then do any stocking up that needs doing and head out tomorrow.

I do worry a little about Chonck though. It seems that having become the Eater of the Dead might have rattled away some of his memories, when I addressed Aunt Frense as family he seemed shocked. Distraught even. Did not remember in the least that we were cousins. Makes me wonder what else he has forgotten.

Time for those worries later I suspect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is nowhere near the point that things went off the rails, but it is the point that I started paying more attention to it for use in the Sunshine's Journals posts. Please understand that Eclair and Chonck both nearly getting arrested is something that would have happened way more often if the party had spent more time in cities.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/01/09/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-19/


	20. Seeking the Cult Sanctuary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As prepared for seeking out the cult sanctuary as they could be, the party readies to leave the Mountain Home. The citizens of the Mountain Home are doubtlessly grateful for their departure.

65th of Spring, Year 256

After spending the night at Aunt Frense’s home in the library we spent a fair amount of the morning finishing our preparations to leave. I found a smith willing to sell me some blessed bolts for my crossbow and Azurei arrows for her bow.

It turns out that the elf can produce holy water. Apparently she’s a cleric of some stripe and simply never let any of us know. Useful, but it could have been more so if we had known earlier. Worth taking into account if there are any cultists left or minor demons.

We have food. We have water and tools for a trek through what might be the strong hold’s ruins. We have no back up.

I tried to find mercenaries to help us. No sense in going in unprepared after all, and I do not trust that the remains of the cult or worse might not have moved back in. The ones that I would have trusted to survive a fight wanted far more than I could provide immediately and would not accept partial payment up front.

The ones I could afford were chased off by Chonck. While we were discussing the trip and the risks they faced he began talking about how any of them who did not survive would live on in him. He would not stop repeating variations on that in response to their confusion. They left while I tried to quiet Chonck before he and Eclair could draw the guards’ attention again.

(The next line was scratched through viciously.) If the demons do not kill those two, I might.

We set out shortly after. I doubt that I will write much until we reach the strong hold. There are many miles and unknown dangers between here and there. I will attempt to note anything of interest we encounter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After Sunshine shot Wren, her player backed off on having her be quite so uncaring about the rest of the party's feelings. With Chonck embracing his ability to learn everything someone had known by eating their corpse and Eclair having spiraled into homicidal cannibalism in the name of experimental baking, this meant that those two played off each other much more than Chonck and Wren. It wound up being much funnier in a lot of ways. But also made us the kind of party the NPCs probably hate.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/01/16/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-20/


	21. Strange Occurences Travel in Sets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party barely manages to avoid a run in with something resembling a great land shark and happens upon a sign for the very sanctuary they seek.

72nd of Spring, Year 256

It seems that strange occurrences land together anymore. After a full week of travel and no notable troubles we came across tremendous amounts of recently churned dirt that seemed connected to something that I could only describe as a massive fin a couple of hills away from us. I can only compare it to the creatures that dogged our ship once when mom took me with her on a guild job, sharks she called them. This fin reminded me of theirs only many many times larger.

Somehow Azurei and I were the only ones to notice it at first. Though once we directed the rest of the party’s attention to it no one could quite decide how to continue. None of us quite knew what it was or what it might do if it somehow noticed us.

Eventually Chonck simply picked the wagon up with one hand and Bear-render with the other and proceeded to, as best I could tell, tip toe past the thing and onto undisturbed ground. I do not know what being, divine, infernal, or otherwise, wanted us past the beast so much that that worked, but it did work. Chonck set both the wagon and the dire boar down as lightly as if neither weighed anything.

Shortly after we found a sign advertising some kind of weekly temple meeting, likely demonic given our location and that the sign was written in infernal. With Chonck pulling the wagon it seemed likely that we could make it to the temple, to the old strong hold, in time to arrive during the meeting.

We managed to fit the wagon above the temple entrance and tuck Bear-render away where he should be safe.

After a good deal of discussion it was agreed that Eclair had the best chances of getting in unnoticed and back out again. She was just meant to listen in and come back to report what was happening. Unfortunately, Chonck got it in his head that she needed protecting and decided that he would accompany her.

Instead of sneaking in they will go in as travelers who happened upon the sign and decided to investigate. If anything happens Chonck will use the bell he bought when we were stocking up to signal the rest of us to come in and save them.

I will write more later in the day. For now I need to ready my gear just in case they need rescuing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The DM had planned a massive battle for us with this one. Truly epic and difficult. And then Chonck's player rolled like two nat 20s and just tip toed past it. We had to break for something like half an hour because none of us could stop laughing over it.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/01/23/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-21/


	22. An Infernal Communion and Unwanted Knowledge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party was summoned in by their scouts, Eclair and Chonck, only to find the dangerous cult they expected friendly and oddly welcoming.

Night, 72nd of Spring, Year 256

It would seem that our scouting party made a fantastic impression on the cult of Gugu Dulum. We rushed in to help when Chonck rang the bell, signaling that they were in trouble. The stench so unholy terrible that it took the elf and Azurei to their knees momentarily. It was nearly as bad as the time Chonck mistook the Inn’s window for a latrine.

Apparently the cult is dedicated to “destroying beautiful things” and a powerful demon called Gugu Dulum. After a great deal of conversation in which the frog demon that seems to be their leader all but pulled examples from our scouts and made attempts at drawing examples from the rest of us, all of us except Azurei were invited to join the cult. Eclair, Chonck, and the elf all readily joined, drinking the frog demon’s blood.

It seems almost sad, the elf told the cultists that she never had anywhere to belong and yet she seemed to do everything she could since arriving at Caskfire to avoid belonging. I wonder if this would have turned out the same if, instead of choosing to be brash and rude and to complain about the work we were asked to do, she had made attempts to be welcome at Caskfire. If she did more to socialize with the rest of the party or to interact with the dwarves of Caskfire? Too late to go back on that now I suppose.

More importantly, when I asked the frog demon about finding Eebaku’s true name he told us we would need to venture further into the vault. According to him thirty-four years ago the cult was attempting to summon Gugu Dulum into this plane of existence when they were interrupted by a band of adventurers. The summoning failed, adding to the chaos and mostly closing the portal. It would seem that they are still working on recovering from this “adventurers incident” and that the area we need to go through if we want to find the stone with Eebaku’s true name is full of demons that have wondered through the shrunken portal. He says these demons are not nearly as civilized as the cultists.

Hopefully they are not as aggressive as the frog demon has made them out to be or are at least comparatively weak due to coming through a lessened portal. Not that we can count on either of those things. There is also little we can do to prepare for a big fight if it comes to that. Too far away from the Mountain Home to return and restock. Too dangerous to forge ahead without a good night’s sleep.

The frog demon’s story about an “adventurers incident” makes me wonder about several things though. It seems to coincidental. Thirty-four years ago a party of adventurers interrupts the summoning of a mightily powerful demon, leaving the portal mostly closed. Thirty-four years ago mom’s party fought a cult in these caves and returned to the Mountain Home with baby me. Clearly the two are different sides of the same event, but what really happened. The king of the Goblins claims that I am his child. I had assumed until now that he was the big demon being worshiped by the cult here. Has he just taken the chance to make more of himself in the intervening years? Why have a baby at a demon summoning? Was I meant to be sacrificed as part of the summoning? Or to become a shell for Gugu Dulum? What happened here back then? So many questions.

I do not know how well I will sleep tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was no fight this session, but there was a lot of discussion and a lot of in character philosophising. It was enjoyable on many levels, especially Sunshine's start of existential crisis at the end there.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/01/30/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-22/


	23. The Broken Tablet

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A run in with strangely familiar demons leads the party to helping the Guga Dulum cult to free their demonic lord.

73rd of Spring, Year 256

The leader of the Guga Dulum cult, Billius Vile, is willing to allow all of us except Azurei into the vault. This is hardly ideal and Azurei seems to be a bit nervous about the whole plan, but what else can we do?

After another warning about the dangerous demons further in, a warning occasionally interrupted by Eclair chanting about stabbing things, we were directed down. The way to the vault was almost boring in retrospect. The stair way was lit by magic torches, so the elf and I both took one just in case. Chonck attempted to light his maul, unsuccessfully and much to his frustration. At the end of the stair way was a cultus gate. Chonck tore the lever off opening it.

Behind the gate though, behind the gate there was a banquet table laden with food richer than most feast day banquets I’ve seen. Four demons sat around it. The looked so like me, but different. Red skin where mine is grey, grey hair where mine is red, in all other respects they could have been my siblings. Even our horns were the same. They claim their father is the demon Maia though, one who cannot shape shift, so it has to be some strange coincidence. Doesn’t it?

The demon Maia is apparently the only demon to have resided here, and his summoning tablet was broken in the “adventurers incident”. We agreed to try fixing the tablet to see if there was any other information that Maia would be able to provide us. Chonck’s first attempt involved wrapping the broken tablet in his old librarian robes. It worked about as well as one might expect, but he made the effort.

When it was eventually suggested that we might be able to carve a new one he near instantly pulled a flagstone out of the floor. Based on what is left of the old one, the new tablet should look something like this I think. [A sketch interrupts the writing, neat lines and geometric shapes form a ritual circle around the name INANNAMAIADRA. The matching invocation is worked into the circle.] With the loan of my dungeoneering kit, Chonck crafted an excellent copy of the tablet. Fine craftsdwarfship there.

But, it will need to be charged with a live sacrifice’s heart’s blood.

The demons, Chonck has taken to referring to them as the Sunsets, lead us back up to the cult’s sanctuary. Billius Vile seemed surprised, and a little scared, that the Sunsets were out of their vault but was quite excited at the prospect of a new tablet. According to him there is a village of Goblins near by that offers sacrifices to the cult in exchange for healing. Chonck ran off before we could get a party together. I think he might be a touch over excited to help his new cult friends, but they have done nothing to harm us thus far. He was even able to talk the Sunsets out of fighting us.

He should not take long to make it back, but I will stop here for now and write more once we have finished the tablet and have had a chance to rest. There is something that I want to mull over some before we summon this demon Maia.

The Sunsets say that, before his summoning tablet was broken, couples would come to the Guga Dulum cult’s temple and beseech the demon to give them a child if they had not been able to have one by any other means. I do not know how that makes me feel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This entire segment of the game was just a long stretch of Chonck saving us from difficult fights through chaos and friendship. The scene with the Sunsets started with them questioning what we were there for, Sunshine declaring her intent to commit patricide, and the fight nearly starting right then because the only demon there was their father. And then Chonck just talked them out of fighting, like, not your father, her father. It was great.
> 
> Original Link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/02/06/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-23/


	24. Restoring the Demon Maia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the new tablet carved a sacrifice is procured and the party, minus Azurei, assist the cult of Guga Dulum in calling back their lord.

73rd of Spring, Year 256, Evening

Chonck returned before the rest of us could get even a third of the way down the path.

It would seem that the village has a Goblin named Sacrifice for exactly this purpose. Given that he told us that he would return in a week, I can only assume that the village has a sort of reincarnation myth for this specific name. It makes me wonder what indicates that a newly grown Goblin is the new Sacrifice and if other names are, for lack of a better word, inherited rather than earned in this particular village.

In any case, as soon as we had returned to the temple Eclair begged to be allowed to perform the sacrifice. It would seem that she has been holding back a special jeweled sacrificial dagger for an occasion such as this. Her face lit with a truly deranged look of joy when Billius Vile agreed that she could perform the sacrifice.

The Goblin laid on the tablet in the cult’s ritual circle and Eclair’s knife struck his heart dead on. It had to have all but exploded for all the blood that came rushing out before it was all drawn into the tablet.

It feels more than reasonable that Azurei chose to stay with the cart for all of this.

The demon Maia’s horns would scrape the ceiling of most of the rooms at Caskfire. It is easy enough to believe that this is a demon who grants people children. She reminds me of a sort of warped reflection of an elven love goddess. There are likely many who would not bother waiting to see if other solutions failed them or not.

It was strange though, during introductions she claimed to recognize her own. Me. I cannot say that I do not see it. Much like the Sunsets she has red skin and grey hair, her eyes glow an amber brighter than my own. The scales and satyr legs are different, but I find myself believing a demon who cannot change her shape is my father more than a shape changing braggart like Eebaku.

Chonck is going to be obnoxious about this though, the demon used the orcish name he took for himself from a book rather than Stonecask as his family name. I cannot help but wonder if the names she used for each of us were pulled from how we consider ourselves. The elf has several names, but the demon referred to her as Wren, which lends credence to this thought. I doubt that I should think too far into this, I doubt that I would like where it lands me.

Somewhat more entertaining, Chonck has determined that because the demon Maia is my father, he must also be his uncle. I did not expect to see a demon surprised today, much less five of them. Because, of course, if Maia is his uncle then the Sunsets must be Chonck’s cousins. He was quite happy with this turn of events and none of the demons had a good argument against it.

It should take a week to reach the Mountain Home. Then a short restock and a further three days to Caskfire. We should be back in time to help with any last minute work on the defenses. The demon Maia has given us permission to invoke her name to help kill Eebaku, so I feel much better about our chances of saving Caskfire than I have in some time. The Sunsets will also accompany us to protect the summoning tablet. I do not expect them to help fight, but they might if the tablet is endangered. Not something I want to test.

I confess, I am ready for this battle to be done and over with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Side note, Chonck also wound up worshiped by the goblins as the great cube. In game we joked that since he was literally running down the mountain he would have just kept picking up speed and that trying to stop himself would have just resulted in him going flying over the goblin village.  
> The reveal from the demon Maia was a surprise to everyone, me included, though a good one and one that made sense given the Sunsets' reaction to Sunshine's declaration of intent to kill her father. Chonck's acquisition of a bunch of demon cousins was just an excellent bonus.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/02/13/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-24/


	25. A Final Return to Caskfire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armed with permission to summon the demon Maia against Eebaku and his forces, the party returns to Caskfire one last time. The stage is all but set, the battle will start soon.

80th of Spring, Year 256

Once we reached the Mountain Home the party split up to restock more efficiently. Azurei and the elf went to gather their half of the list. I took Eclair with me to collect the rest. And Chonck decided to introduce the Sunsets to his mother.

We met back up at the library to find a lovely dinner prepared and Aunt Frense making eyes at the Demon Maia. Given how pleased with themselves the Sunsets looked we will likely be staying at the Inn tonight.

81st of Spring, Year 256

I left a note for Aunt Frense on our way out of town. She should be fine. At least, I hope she will be fine.

84th of Spring, Year 256

We reached Caskfire in good time despite our unexpected night at the Mountain Home.

As expected, the fortress has been preparing while we were gone. The guardsdwarves are drilling every able bodied dwarf old enough to hold a weapon or wear armor. There are racks of newly smithed spears and shields, all manner of fortifications have been prepared, the only thing left is to get it all in position and ready to use.

Given what we are fighting, it was not a surprise that a few dwarves reacted poorly to the Sunsets being here. Most shrugged off their concerns after being told that they were here to help. Others needed to be reminded that they did not intend to stay after this was over.

Churt nearly spat out her beer after I reported that we intended to summon an even bigger demon to ensure Eebaku’s defeat.

She seems much more concerned with having the fortress checked for traps or recent damage though. The trap maker, Gimbal Deathweaver, disappeared shortly after our party left. It would seem that he had been Eebaku’s informer the whole time. I suppose that we will have to report that to the Mountain Home at some point, no sense in making it easy for him to get back into a fortress if he finds another demon to work for.

Eebaku’s army will be here any day now. I need to prepare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I had to edit so many off color jokes out of this one for my blog, mostly due to Aunt Frense and the demon Maia. We wound up talking so much about how Chonck happened in this session. Also the Sunsets briefly gave him a greaser style makeover complete with pompador and cigarettes, I just didn't have a good place to work that in.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/02/20/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-25/


	26. The Fall of Eebaku

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eebaku arrived as promised, expecting an easy win and then conquest. Never counting on the party's alliance with the demon Maia or on Sunshine having found out the truth.

87th of Spring, Year 256

Eebaku’s army arrived this morning, a hoard of Goblins so large it blanketed the areas we had cleared for farming and reached out into the forests.

He asked if we had considered his offer. Would we join his empire?

I let him know how little I cared for being lied to before invoking Maia. Eebaku’s horror as the demon Maia flung a great number of fireballs into his army was delicious. Even more so his fear when Maia summoned a flaming whip to ensnare him leaving him for the party to do as we would.

Chonck had re-enforced his maul with the complete History of Fish set. When it hit Eebaku, knocking out teeth and showing that he could be harmed I knew that we had won. I knew that I could harm him with the Eater of the Dead’s Fangs.

It was more satisfying to stab out his eyes than it should have been. Even more so to tell him he could keep his tongue so that he could scream. Probably not the best thing to have done, looking back, but I let my anger catch up to me.

After that is something of a blur. I left Chonck and Eclair to deal with Eebaku and joined the rest of the party and the guardsdwarves in dealing with his army. They broke nearly as soon as their leader was injured. The few most loyal who stayed still ran after he finally died.

I do not like to say that it was a clean battle. Tomorrow we will mourn our lost and begin repairs. Tonight we celebrate the victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Given that the party had made friends with the demon Maia, this battle was mostly Eebaku being used as a punching bag. For awhile in game Chonck and Eclair's players were just having Chonck beat him down to near death and then Eclair heal him back up. Not really something that makes for good story telling even as it was cathartic for both of them in game. Also not something that the Sunshine of that point in time would have stuck around for after saying her piece, so it ultimately got left out of the telling.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/02/27/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-26/


	27. Rebuilding and Departures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The threat ended the party finds they have little reason to stay together. Three have found a place to belong elsewhere. One seeks other roads.

89th of Spring, Year 256

As it turns out, Chonck ignored instructions and ate one of the embers from Eebaku’s death. I confess, that was not unexpected. It did turn out better than expected. It would seem that being trapped in Chonck’s head with all the other souls has rendered Eebaku incapable of rebuilding himself in a demonic plane and eventually returning.

Clean up has been finished, mostly, repairs will take a little longer but nothing seems permanently damaged.

The Sunsets left yesterday. The elf, Eclair, and Chonck are planning to head back to the Guga Dulum enclave tomorrow. I am, I admit, glad to have another day to visit with them before they go back into the mountains.

Waiting for Churt to write a writ of passage and letter recommending that Eclair’s sentence for disrupting the peace be considered served given her service in the protection of Caskfire is certainly a portion of why their stay is extended. All contingent, of course, on Eclair not providing a repeat performance. There might not be anyone willing to stuff her in a bag this trip. But I still appreciate the time.

It will be quiet once they have left.

Even more so in a week or so when Azurei leaves as well. She mentioned returning to White Hall to offer the young bard there more mentorship if he wanted to continue learning. Beyond that, it seems she is set on returning to adventuring.

When she does leave, the guardsdwarves are seeing to it that she knows as many drinking songs as they can collectively remember. If she gives them long enough by the time she leaves she will be able to sing the full history of the Boatmurdered clan.

That would be greatly entertaining to hear out in the wider world.

Churt is already drafting requests for new adventurers to fill their posts. There have been multiple suggestions that Bear-render be given one of the appointments. I am only responsible for three of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was meant to be the proper ending to the story, but no game group stops talking about a game just because it's finished. We had discussion about what the immediate plans for characters were and then later where they would go from there.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/03/05/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-27/


	28. A New Path to Chart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Caskfire has rebuilt and flourishes and the once separated party looks towards another adventure together.

1st of Spring, Year 257

I had planned on leaving this be. Not many pages left, but it seemed worth writing in it one more time future plans taken into consideration.

Things have changed a fair deal since I last used this journal. Caskfire has grown more than I would have ever expected during our first Spring. We finished digging on the fourth level just last week. I think they expect to strike magma in another level or so, so effort is being put in to prepare for construction on magma forges and an expansion of ore production.

Thanks to Rikke’s bandits and the farmers from Dunhill, we have had plenty of food to make up for our surface farms having been destroyed. Both are fans of dwarven leather goods and metal work. Both seem to be warming up to each other, given that safer roads benefit everyone and farm folk are more than willing to toss a coin or bushel of whatever might be in season for those safer roads. Not, mind, that the necromancers are all too happy about the recent harmony. They no longer have a source of Goblin corpses with the Eater of the Dead gone. And since we officially never found out that they are, in fact, necromancers there is little they can do to request a new source without revealing that they lied to us and losing the trade agreements they so desperately want to keep.

Caskfire has evolved from an expedition seeking more materials for the Mountain Home into a proper fortress.

Which makes it feel wrong to be leaving, even if I plan to return eventually. Chonck’s letter came at, I do not want to call it a good time, but at a time when my thoughts would have lead me away from Caskfire soon regardless.

With his, our, younger brother having been born Chonck seems to have figured that a dwarven tiefling will make a fine Eater of the Dead when he eventually dies. With that decided, he wants to write the tale of his grand adventure last Spring becoming the Eater of the Dead and slaying the demon Eebaku. More than that, he wants to ensure that it can be read by as many people as possible, so he is off on a quest to collect as many languages as he can so that he might write his story in as many languages as possible.

Eclair is, of course, coming along to prepare the many bodies he plans on eating to gain these languages. It seems that the elf had nothing better to do and, as for me, he figured that since Aunt Frense’ new baby is both of our brother that makes the two of us siblings as well.

I find that I do not want to argue the point.

Also, I already sent letters out to the Bards College to see if Azurei could be contacted. We might need as many voices of reason as we can lay hands on. It might also be nice to see everyone again.

The first leg to the Guga Dulum enclave should be much shorter than last time. I hear Aunt Frense visited enough that the road from the Mountain Home has been paved. Churt already approved leave for both Bearrender and I. Officially we are joining the party to seek out an artifact for the glory of Caskfire. Unofficially, I have a number of gifts for each of my companions and my room will be kept sealed until we return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As goofy as the idea of the next adventure mentioned here is, I admit, this is probably my favorite of the Sunshine's Journals posts. Something about the idea of getting the party back together, mostly just to get the party back together appeals to me. Part of that might be that we just recently ended a different campaign, but I always want to know what happens next after a campaign ends and it's hard to turn loose of that feeling.
> 
> Original link:  
> https://tympestbooks.wordpress.com/2020/03/12/from-the-journals-of-sunshine-stonecask-chapter-28/


End file.
